GP-IMPACT: Collaborative Workforce Training in Geoscience and Social Science for Natural-Hazards Preparedness and Mitigation (HazPM)

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Part 1: Nontechnical Description of the ProjectNatural hazards exist in all parts of Earth, and pose risks to humanity, human institutions, and infrastructure. These risks are rendered even more extreme, more complex, and more difficult to manage by global climate change. Effective preparation for and mitigation of natural hazards is not simply a problem for natural scientists and engineers, but also for social sciences, since hazards originate and occur in the interfaces between natural systems and societies. Research has demonstrated that better-educated societies with better-educated decision-makers are best equipped to prepare for, mitigate, and recover from natural disasters. While hazards-related public and professional education are common missions for many universities and colleges, the HazPM project will improve on this model by drawing on expertise from both the social and the natural sciences of hazards to design and implement an undergraduate workforce-training program that integrates both realms from start to finish. Our design plan is fully supported by current research and will result in an innovative, fully accessible, and rigorously tested undergraduate curriculum that will be implemented regionally and disseminated nationally. Through parallel collaboration with faculty at regional two-year colleges that serve major populations of Native American and Hispanic/Chicano/Latino students, the HazPM project team will also increase access and professional opportunities in the sciences for underrepresented minority students. Part 2: Technical DescriptionThe overall goal of the HazPM project is to better prepare undergraduate students in geoscience and many other relevant fields, such as engineering, planning, management, pre-law, and sustainability, for careers or post-graduate studies related to natural-hazards preparedness and mitigation. Drawing on a research-based design plan that integrates natural and social sciences and employs a nimble partnership of expert professionals and educators from industry, government agencies, and academia, we will develop and bring to fruition an innovative, sustainable, and readily transferable workforce-training program that will be implemented locally and disseminated nationally and globally to enable wider adoption. The primary deliverable will be an innovative, online-native, fully accessible, rigorously assessed, modular curriculum for an undergraduate certificate program. Collaboration with agency and industry professionals will ensure program validity and relevance to career opportunities. HazPM will also increase access and professional opportunities for underrepresented students (including Native American and Hispanic/Chicano/Latino students in the U. S. Southwest) by means of pedagogy that addresses the impacts of socioeconomic inequality on vulnerability to hazards in underserved communities; direct partnership with regional two-year colleges that serve significant numbers of underrepresented students; and collaboration with minority professional STEM organizations (e.g., SACNAS, AISES, NABG) in dissemination of products.Drawing on the diverse collective expertise of the principal investigators and collaborators, the HazPM project will integrate geoscientific principles and current geospatial, remote sensing, and monitoring technologies with social science principles and practices to inculcate a far broader understanding of the human, scientific, and engineering dimensions of hazards in students. Full collaborative participation of agency and industry experts in curriculum planning, development, and evaluation will ensure the validity of the program. Formative and summative assessment will maintain academic rigor. Partnering with regional community colleges will allow for the recruitment of a diverse cadre of students who reflect the cultural and socioeconomic diversity of the Southwest, and who will apply their expertise where it is most needed, especially in underserved areas. Students will be able to enter the program at these partner institutions and transfer to ASU to complete their studies. Impacts of the program on diverse students will be tracked and measured by means of institutional demographic data. The undergraduate certificate program will be fully available and accessible online, and formalized in the academic programs at ASU and collaborating community colleges to ensure its sustainability. All HazPM curriculum resources and research findings will be broadly disseminated among the academic and professional communities by means of conference presentations, refereed publications in journals of education research and teaching practice, and web hosting with links to community digital libraries such as SERC, DLESE, and UCGIS. Adoption and implementation of the program resources by other institutions will be encouraged.